Upper class hubris

The urban upper class has never been more exposed than in the recent spate of incidents against the working class. The most recent one being that of an elderly woman in Gurugram abusing and thrashing a female security guard for using a heater to fight the winter chill. These seemingly minor incidents of people flying off the handle are distinctively symptomatic of our general demeanour towards hired help. Incidents of security guards getting roughed up, delivery boys being abused, and maids being ill-treated are commonplace.

There are so many factors at play. Caste and religion being the first culprits that come to our minds. And of course, that's true. I read an interesting analytical story on an international not-for-profit journalistic platform that discussed over a dozen incidents of caste and religion-based hate and discrimination faced by gig workers in India. This article stood out as it discussed the other side of India's 'startup high'. According to global consulting firm, the Boston Consulting Group (BCG), 15 million workers comprise the Indian gig economy. As per another report, around 9-10 million workers will be added to the gig economy by 2025. As more and more join the Indian gig workforce, the incidents of casteist and religious slur unleashed upon them are also increasing. While we see some social media chatter, this was the only news story in recent times that dared to highlight the bias faced by gig workers.

Casteism is deeply ingrained within the Indian society, and the subaltern is still fighting to scale up the ranks. In an increasingly communally divisive India, religion is the oft-used trump card to precipitate violence and harassment on hapless victims. And while this may be a truth bomb whose existence we deny, I feel there is yet another factor that drives abuse and assault of the working class — a sense of entitlement that governs the minds of the urban upper class. They are like the wicked zamindars of yore that exploited the peasants and landless, fed off their toil and labour, and became fat with debauchery, wine, mujra-watching. Okay fine, I may have described some sordid fellows from old Hindi flicks but you get the drift. Today's neo-zamindars may not even hail from landed gentry ancestry — these individuals simply feel it their right to verbally, physically, or sexually abuse the working class.

The reality is that there is no dignity of labour in our country. We still look down upon those who cook and clean for us. Just see the way people treat their drivers or household staff, and you can tell how they are as human beings. The class divide becomes even more apparent when drunk women assault a security guard in Noida, another gets bashed up in Ghaziabad, a third gets roughed up in Greater Noida for not allowing exit from entry gate — all three incidents happened in October this year. We are spoilt for choice when it comes to such incidents — an army officer who slapped a food delivery boy so hard that he allegedly partially lost his hearing, or a lout in Gurugram who repeatedly slaps a security guard after getting out of a faulty lift, or the infamous case of a woman in Bengaluru alleging assault by a food delivery person that proved to be fake. Unfortunately, the working class comprising of gig workers, security guards, maids etc. receive no labour to safeguard their rights.

Most of these delinquents wouldn't imagine raising a hand on a fellow resident, that too, over inconsequential reasons. So, what gives them the audacity to do so towards a security guard? It's an inflated sense of self, of owning the worker that give them service, and utter disrespect towards the individual and his profession. For some this megalomania is conditioned by generations of supposed upper caste superiority. Sadly, in India, we still don't talk about civil rights. Today, on Human Rights Day, as we commemorate the 75th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights with this year's slogan of "Dignity, Freedom, and Justice for All", I hope all of us pledge to protect and #StandUp4HumanRights.

The writer is an author and media entrepreneur. Views expressed are personal